My goal ever afternoon is for the TV to not be turned on in the time between the kids and I getting home from school and other activities, and when Gianluca and Elena come home from work. Sometimes I get off easy, and they're home already. Sometimes I stay at the playground longer just to have less time for it to be an option. I can never talk them out of turning the TV on, though, once they get the idea in their head- any pleading for them to find a book, colour a picture, play nascondino, learn to knit, fall on deaf ears. Or rather, ears who decide to only selectively understand English.
"Turn off the TV."
"Non ho capito!"
"Spengere il TV."
"Non ho capito!"
"You do too ho capito, that was Italian."
"Non ho capito!"
Today on the walk from school to Greta's dance lesson, she started collecting a few leaves. I think she actually needed a couple for school, from the jumbled explanations I was getting, but I immediately began to think of the leaf rubbing projects we did at Holden, the Outdoor Y, and Girl Scout Camps- finally, a good plan for when we returned home! I put the leaves she chose in my bag, and kept quiet until we actually got home an hour or so later. Then I quietly got out my journal and my crayons, chose a leaf from the bag, sat down at the dining room table, and started a rubbing.
Suddenly, I had two children who had been running all over the house and acting like monkeys standing quietly next to me and watching. IT WAS MAGIC, PEOPLE. MAGIC. The silence didn't last for long, though because they started asking me- in ENGLISH, no less- how to do it! So I showed them. It took a few tried for them to get the right crayon pressure and such, but they got it!
After a while, I asked them if they wanted to go outside and find more leaves. They didn't understand. Instead of running for my dictionary like I have before, I simply repeated the sentence closer, and in small segments.
MORE MAGIC. They worked together and supplied each other with the vocabulary the other was lacking to figure out the exact translation of my question- they even repeated it back to me in both English and Italian, so I knew they weren't just agreeing blindly! I was completely blown away!
We went outside to get some more leaves. There wasn't much variety on the street, but we found three or four kinds, so it was good enough. Luckily I had taken a small container with me, so it was easy to say when it was time to return to the flat- I think otherwise we would have been out all evening collecting leaves!
The activity didn't last as long as I had hopes once we actually got back to the house, but it was still enough to keep them away from thoughts of the television, and learn something new. Marco learned very quickly that darker colours were better, and even started layering and mixing colours to make unique designs!
Greta was doing well with the rubbings before we went after more leaves, but when we returned she had somehow decided she would rather just draw them. Close enough, right?
And I just decorated the next few pages of my journal, as I usually do when I'm bored. I'll have to remember to start carrying the right kinds of pens and markers to write over the crayon for the next few days!
Even though in all it lasted less than an hour, I consider it a VERY successful afternoon, and one of my favourite days so far. It helped that I was in a good mood from having what can ALMOST be considered a real conversation in Italian while I was at the playground- an older gentleman came up to me and complimented me on the fact that I was writing (in my journal) by hand rather than on a computer. I didn't catch every word, but definitely enough to get the gist of it- and then I didn't completely freeze up when I tried to answer. Now, my Italian was far from grammatically correct, but it was full sentences. We had a short conversation about where I was from, and what I was doing in Cremona, and then he went on his way, but it made me so happy!
1. US Elections
Why is Ohio so important? Apparently that's a known fact worldwide, and is the FIRST thing mentioned when I say what state I'm from. Try explaining the electoral college to someone with only very basic English skill. Go on, I dare you.
2. Indiana Jones
We're playing an Indiana Jones medley in the community wind band. I can generally tell when the director is going off on tangents and when he's giving instructions, so I tend to tune out the tangents. Until I suddenly realized that he had switched to English, which meant it was directed at me. "Which Indiana Jones movie was first?" Uh... I've only seen one. Yes, I know I should fix that. But even if I had seen more than one, I still probably wouldn't know which was first. So I just said "Raiders of the Lost Ark," since that's the only one I've seen, and hoped I was right. But really? None of the other thirty people in the room know Indiana Jones, it HAD to fall to me?
3. Syria
At least I can find Syria on a map, unlike most. Luckily, questions in this area were generally geared towards "do you agree with the idea of going to war," which I could easily answer without getting too much into politics. Pacifism ftw.
4. The Shutdown
After the first few days, the only reason I kept reading all the articles I could find was to be able to answer questions. I mean, of course I wanted to stay informed, but honestly, all I really cared about was when it ended. Instead, I was memorizing numbers, dates, and names of members of congress.
5. John Williams
Wind band again. Before working on the Indiana Jones piece, the director talked for like 2 minutes in Italian. No big deal, I could pick out some stylistic reminders and other directions- after all, music therms are music terms. Plus, he generally translates things that are important. But this time, after he finished his original instructions, he looked at me and said "Well, you know John Williams. Play it like that." Sure, I'm plenty familiar with him... but I could still have used the reminders!
6. The English Language
Okay, this one seems a bit weird to add. Especially with how much I love grammar, I never thought this would be an issue. But I've never really had to THINK about grammar before, other than the things I'm working on fixing for myself. (Right now, my mission is to stop ending my sentences with prepositions. IT'S A LOT HARDER THAN IT SOUNDS.) But when I'm asked what the difference is between "drank" and "drunk," I draw a blank. I don't know, the right one usually just comes out of my mouth.
7. American Pop/Rock Music
...HA. Ask me anything about Broadway, but bring up Miley and I'm just going to stare at you blankly. Can I understand the words to [insert whatever song happens to be on the radio]? Have you heard this Niki Minaj song? How about Ke$ha?
8. Travel Within the US
"You've NEVER been to TEXAS‽‽‽‽‽" Nope. Well, I had a layover in Austin once, does that count?
"Have you been to New York?" City or state?
"Have you been to Washington?" Again, city or state? (ALWAYS city.)
"Can't you just take a train to..." *dissolves into laughter*
"Do you go to the sea for holiday?" Well, we don't have a sea, and the ocean is REALLY far away.
"Wait, so you can't see the other side of the lake?" Nope.
9. Muscle Cars
This was really only one time, but just the fact that it was used as a "common interest" conversation starter was weird. Nod and smile. I also get some questions about American cars in general, but that's mostly from the kids while we're walking down the street, and they ask which cars are American-made. Uh... Ford.... that's all I've got.
10. Cleveland Accent
This doesn't technically fit the category, but like hell am I going to stop on an odd number. I've never been more aware of the whole "a = ɪə" business in my life. Every once in a while, people ask me to pronounce random things just for fun. "Al" was one of the first. Also, thanks to a couple of friends from home, I'm well aware that I say "milk" wrong, and that did not go unnoticed here either.
There are so many little things along the way that I have never really though about before. Yes, our suburban neighborhoods look like the ones in movies. Yes, greek organizations really exist. Yes, huge parties do happen in college. Yes, we carve pumpkins for halloween. And we do the whole costume trick or treating thing. Just like in movies.
On the flip side, my perception of Italy: Yes, there is pasta EVERYWHERE. I think we ate pasta every day- sometimes twice a day- for the entire first week I was here. It's scaled back a bit now, but still a lot more than at home! Yes, everything here is very old. I was in a church a few weeks ago that was RESTORED before Columbus even left Europe. And everything is art.
We were watching a movie a few days ago- I have no idea what the title was, but the basic plot revolved around the President's daughter running away while on a trip in Europe. At one point, she is in Venice, and meets a local man, who takes her and her companion home where his mother fed them and gave them a place to sleep for the night. The mom only spoke Italian, and as soon as she started, everyone around me burst out laughing. However, I later learned that it was only because the accent was completely wrong for Venice- what she was saying, and how open and welcoming she was to complete strangers is VERY Italian. So our movies get some things right about other cultures, too!
Lots of things have been happening recently! Here are some highlights:
Italian lessons started up again, in a slightly different format. We had a week off while Silvana, the teacher, got more students, and then she sorted us into three different groups based on our ability. We started at a much easier level, and although I still don't understand everything, I feel more comfortable asking for clarification than I did with the other students. I'll always be at a disadvantage since I'm not out using Italian all the time like the ERASMUS students are, but I'm getting better. I've gone through a couple different online language programs, like Quizlet, FreeRice, and Memrise, but I finally came across Duolingo, which is pretty fantastic! Now, I just have to get myself to start USING what I'm learning. I'm getting better at understanding, and faster at reading, but I'm still afraid to speak.
I started going to the practices of Elena's swimming club. The first night was so difficult! I was SUPER sore the next morning. The outdoor pool was nice for that first week- there were only three or so people in the same lane as me, and we were all really slow. The first couple laps, I was stopping every 50 meters (one length) to catch my breath! My lane only swam about 1 km that night, against the 2.5 km the rest of the group was doing, if I remember correctly. Moving indoors the second week changed things up- there were more people (now six or seven in the lane), the pool is only 25 meters long, and it's harder to hear instructions. And the "extra" people in the same lane as me are all a lot faster. So it gets confusing sometimes. But it's so fun, and I'm really enjoying it! I've found that I really miss swimming. Since I somehow lost my swimsuit in moving home from OU, I've been wearing a swimsuit-material sports bra and the mello volleyball shorts from last year- when a 2 piece makeshift bathing suit is your only option, you get over body image issues pretty darn fast!
I also found a wind band to join! A friend of the family I am living with knows the director. It also happens to be the same place where Marco goes for his music lessons. He just chose his instrument last week, and he will start to learn clarinet soon! I'm really excited for him. Giordano, the director of the music school and the community wind band, gave me a horn to play. It's a single F, which causes problems sometimes when I use B flat fingerings without thinking, but I'm really just happy to have an instrument to play! The band itself is kinda U Band-ish, but very small. The instrumentation is... interesting. Yeah, let's go with "interesting". If my memory is accurate, there are 3 or so percussionists, one tuba, one trumpet, 2 horns, 8 clarinets, 4 saxes, 1 tenor, 1 oboe, and maybe 5 flutes. But it's a really great group! Everyone is no nice! Some speak English and some don't. Giordano translates his instructions (though he joked around last week that he was only going to use English), though sometimes he goes overboard and translates what are already normal musical terms. I never really thought about the fact that those are really just words, even though we all learn them as technical terms. And not all of them translate the way we are taught! "Subito" is my new favourite word to use in everyday conversation.
My next big goal is to really start getting out of the house. I was out quite a bit the first week, while I was learning my way around the downtown area, but lately I've been holing up in my room during the day. Yeah, sometimes I'm working on Italian or doing other semi-important things, but mostly I'm browsing Pinterest and Imgur or playing Candy Crush. So that needs to be changing. It's a good thing Netflix doesn't work here, though, or I'd be in even more trouble, haha! But I want to start going to different coffeshops to study Italian, go to the museums and violin makers, and get to know more of the city!
